Simply breathtaking: Increased health risk for city dwellers

What do we need to make us happy? An apartment in the city centre, amenities within easy reach, your favourite bar round the corner and friends close by. To stay healthy we need around 1 kg of food each day, 3-4 litres of liquid and 10-15,000 litres of air. And that’s where the problem lies: the air in urban areas. One of the drawbacks of living in the city centre is the presence of solid and gaseous pollutants in the air in the form of fine dust, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide which people living in urban areas are more exposed to than most.

This was the subject of research carried out by the University of Basle on thousands of residents living in various Swiss locations as part of their major SAPALDIA study in 1990/91 and then again in 2002. From the recently published results it emerged that anyone living within 20 metres of a busy street was 15% more likely to suffer from bronchial asthma, respiratory distress, emphysema (pulmonary overinflation) or COPD (Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) than comparable groups in other locations. Conversely, the risk decreased by 12% for every 100 metres further away from main roads.

What can be done? Not many people are able or willing to change where they live. But the risks can be reduced using AIRNERGY supplementary air, a technology which helps the body to make better use of the oxygen in respiratory air. The ability to do this decreases with age, under stress, through illness or environmental stresses, which includes constantly inhaling harmful airborne substances. We rely on oxygen to supply the energy for the cells in our body. Improving the way oxygen is used therefore enables the entire organism to function more efficiently. That has far-reaching consequences for all the body’s functions, including the bronchial tubes and lungs. AIRNERGY can be used very effectively in fighting respiratory disorders.

Dr. Klaus Erpenbach from Erftstadt, whose practice has served as a reference practice for the general medicine department of the University of Cologne for a number of years, recently reported on the results of a study he conducted which involved patients with COPD (stage 2-3 according to GOLD, the Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease) using AIRNERGY every day for an average of four weeks. Dr. Erpenbach: “The result was a significant increase in the resilience of these patients, expressed in terms of distance walked and in their performance when climbing stairs. The effects were sustained in the following weeks when AIRNERGY was withdrawn. Furthermore, pulmonary overinflation was reduced significantly and this also continued to be the case once treatment had stopped“. For the doctor this clearly proves the positive influence of using supplementary air for respiratory problems. His study is due to be published shortly.

Town planners speak today of a renaissance in the cities. Young urbanites appreciate living, working and having the associated infrastructure all within close proximity. Older people are leaving their houses in the countryside where buses are few and far between. Der Spiegel magazine has identified this as a new “emigration to prosperous urban centres“. The trend is understandable and should be welcomed because, after all, it is in many ways more practical to live in a city.

But it is also important to try to reduce the health risks associated with city living by using supplementary air. Respiratory air flowing from an Airnergy energy filling station is normal in every respect except that the oxygen component is changed by means of a physical process. The filling stations are the size of a briefcase and are easy to use. Filling up on energy for 21 minutes each day using a lightweight breathing mask whilst relaxing during work, while reading or watching TV is enough to keep the effects of harmful air pollution at bay.

Further information on Airnergy can be found at www.atemluft.info

Editor:
Dr. Renate Preising
Tel: (+49) 2242 93 30-19
r.preising@airnergy.info